Meanings
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noun
The manners or decent behaviour to be observed in social or professional life; conventional decorum; the ceremonial code of polite society.
20 May 2018, Hadley Freeman in The Guardian, Is Meghan Markle the American the royals have needed all along? Much shock was expressed in the British press about the Palace’s utter failure to control the Markles and the Markles’ lack of etiquette.
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Thesaurus
1740, from French étiquette (“property, a little piece of paper, or a mark or title, affixed to a bag or bundle, expressing its contents, a label, ticket”), from Middle French estiquette (“ticket, memorandum”), from the Old French verb estechier, estichier, estequier (“to attach, stick”), (compare Picard estiquier (“to stick, pierce”)), from Frankish *stekan, *stikkjan (“to stick, pierce, sting”), from Proto-Germanic *stikaną, *stikōną, *staikijaną (“to be sharp, pierce, prick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to be sharp, to stab”). Akin to Old High German stehhan (“to stick, attach, na...